What Comes Before by Molly Macabre

Cover of What Comes Before

What Comes Before

by Molly Macabre

Why we picked it

A strong pick for readers who like eerie wilderness horror and tense survival stories. It promises an isolated setting, a sinister unseen force, and rising dread as two strangers struggle to escape.

About this book

In What Comes Before, Molly Macabre follows Tess as she heads to an isolated cabin, hoping for a calm escape from a demanding job and the pressure of everyone around her. Instead of rest, she finds herself trapped in a forest that offers anything but peace.

There she meets Aiden, another stranded soul, and the two try to find a way out together. But the woods are hiding a warped force beneath the trees, one that combines a childlike mind with an ancient streak of cruelty. As Tess and Aiden realize they are part of a dark game beyond their control, the story turns into a tense fight against something that does not want to release them.

The vibe

Isolated cabin horrorDark forest trapStranded togetherAncient cruel forceTense survival

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Details

Author
Molly Macabre
Genre
Fiction
Published
September 13, 2025
Publisher
Independently published
Pages
124
Reading time
About 2 hours
ISBN
9798294358914

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For your book club

  1. How does Tess’s desire for escape shape the horror she faces?
  2. What makes a forest setting so effective for tension and dread?
  3. How does being trapped change the connection between Tess and Aiden?
  4. What is especially unsettling about a force with a childlike mind and cruelty?
  5. How might the novel explore control versus helplessness?

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